[ARIN-consult] Consultation on the Future Use of the ARIN Discuss Mailing List

[Jo Rhett]

On Apr 3, 2014, at 8:13 AM, ARIN <info at arin.net> wrote:
> ARIN is soliciting community input on the idea of opening the current
> members-only ARIN Discuss mailing list, arin-discuss at arin.net, to the
> general public.


No, no, no, and oh yeah NO.

I cannot find any value in taking away the space available for members who utilize IP address space to discuss policy. The bar to entry is very low, such that many ARIN members are individuals or the smallest of businesses. There is no bar to entry beyond that of actually consuming IP space. Those who do not consume IP space have no reason to be concerned with policies.

To be fair, understanding the role of ARIN and the necessity of regulations is a non-trivial effort for anyone new to them. Even people who have real IP space needs but are new to the process have a significant learning curve. Opening the list to people who will never utilize the process, and will thus never engage themselves enough to understand the process, will *NOT* improve conversation on the very real topics discussed here.

A major point here is that most of us are serious network administrators with real jobs to do. Turning this mailing list into even more of a free-for-all will cause many of us to walk away from it. If we want to have an internet drama, there exist more than enough other places for us to engage in such silliness. I see no value to bring the drama here, as this is one of the few places where I can say that reasoned merit-based discussion occurs on a frequent basis.

-- 
Jo Rhett
+1 (415) 999-1798
Skype: jorhett
Net Consonance : net philanthropy to improve open source and internet projects.